ALL THE PEOPLE AT WORK FOR JESUS.

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Sermon

DELIVERED ON WEDNESDAY MORNING, MAY 9TH, 1877, BY
C. H. SPURGEON,

AT CHRIST CHURCH, WESTMINSTER BRIDGE ROAD,

On Behalf of the London Missionary Society.

I HAVE taken two texts from two successive chapters of the book of Joshua: the first is from Joshua the seventh, at the third verse. The spies who were sent to Ai returned to Joshua and said to him, "Let not all the people go up; but let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai." This policy led to a disastrous defeat; and our other text gives us the Lord's command concerning the new attack. You will find it in the eighth of Joshua and the first verse: "The Lord said unto Joshua, Fear not, neither be thou dismayed: take all the people of war with thee, and arise, go up to Ai: see, I have given into thy hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land."

The two texts may be condensed into-first, the advice of the spies, to employ only a part of the people in the assault upon Ai,-"Let not all the people go up"; and, secondly, the command of God, to let every fighting man go forth to the war,-"Take all the people of war with thee."

Brethren, like Israel, we are called to war, and we have a greater than Joshua at our head, in whose name we conquer. There is an inheritance which as yet has been held by the adversary, and in the name of God we have to drive him out. We are likely to experience difficulties very similar to those which were met with by the tribes; and I doubt not that their history (is it not written for our learning?) will prove exceedingly interesting to us, if we have a mind to consider it. We shall meet with the same defeats as they did if we fall into the same sins, and we shall win like victories if we are, obedient to the commands which God has given us, which are very similar to those addressed to Israel of old. As in a glass we see ourselves in the twelve tribes, from the first day even until now, and in the texts before us there is a lesson for us, which may God, by his grace, enable us to learn. I pray the Holy Spirit to illuminate our minds while we read in the book of the

wars of the Lord, and as soldiers of Christ learn from warriors of old time.

I. Let us consider THE ADVICE OF THE SPIES which led to such a shameful defeat.

And here we shall have to deal with the error of supposing that a part only of the church will be sufficient to perform the work of the whole ;—that a large proportion may be idle, and that the rest will be quite enough to fight the Lord's battles. I feel it to be an error which, though not perhaps theoretically held by any of us, is practically to be seen abroad in our churches, and needs to be met and put to an end.

In Joshua's day this error sprang up among the Israelites because, on account of their sins, God was displeased with them. The commencement of the chapter tells us that the Lord God was wroth because the children of Israel had committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for the sin of Achan the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people. That was the real reason of their defeat before Ai; but out of that secret cause grew the more manifest source of defeat-which was, that because God was displeased with them they were left to themselves, and hence they adopted a fatal policy. When God is in the midst of a church he guides its counsels, and directs the hearts of men to go about his work in the wisest manner. Is it not an old saying that "Whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad"? And is not the heathen proverb the shadow of the fact that men become foolish when they have broken the commands of God, and thus they are chastened for one fault by being permitted to fall into another? Even upon the Lord's own people a measure of judicial blindness may come. You may depend upon it that when it becomes a doctrine that only special classes of men are to be expected to work in the church, there is some great wrong in the background. In that church which most of all has fallen into this fallacy, and has drawn the sharpest line between those called the clergy and the poor unfortunate laymen outside, who perchance may do something for God, but who cannot be expected, or indeed allowed to do anything in particular: in that church, I say, the deadliest errors have found a home. We, too, may take it for granted that when we begin to leave Christian work to be performed by a minister, or the visitation of the poor to be solely done by a paid missionary, we have some Achan in the camp, with a goodly Babylonish garment hidden in his tent. There must be an accursed thing somewhere or other which has caused us to be left to so gross a folly: either worldliness, or lukewarmness, or love of ease, or deep declension of heart must lie at the root of this slovenly and sluggish policy. It is not God's mind that it should be so; and he has evidently left us to ourselves when this fatal method is adopted. When the Holy Ghost rests upon the church this folly is practically avoided, nay, it is not even thought of. God grant to the churches represented here to-day that they may walk in such soundness of doctrine and have such spirituality of life that they may be full of the divine presence, and never dream for a moment of sending a portion only of their members out to war, and leave the rest to sit still! We cannot leave the battles of our Lord to be fought by mercenary troops; the whole army of men made willing in the day of the Lord's power must go out under the command of our divine Joshua to meet the foe.

Furthermore, this evil policy arose out of presumption engendered by success. But a little while ago all Israel had marched around Jericho for seven days, and on the seventh day, when they shouted, the city walls fell flat to the ground. Perhaps they began to say, "Did those massive walls fall when we compassed them about? O Israel, thou art a great nation! And did they fall with nothing but a shout? Then the Hittite and the Hivite, and every other enemy, shall flee before us like chaff before the wind! What need can there be to carry all our baggage up the hill to Ai? What need to march so many men? Two or three thousand will be quite sufficient to carry that small city by storm. We can do wonders, and therefore we need not put forth all our strength!"

Brethren, many dangers surround success; it is not much of it that any of us can bear. The full sail needs much ballast lest the boat be overset. When in this or any other part of the world the church sees many converts as the fruit of her labours, when there are great gatherings, and a good deal of shouting, great interest excited, and multitudinous conversions, it is very natural to calculate that the work has been easily done, and needs no very severe or general effort. The idea is fostered that there is no need now for continued house-to-house visitation, no need for more missionaries, no need for regular plodding service in school and cottage-meeting, no need to set our young men and women to work for Christ! The drill and organization of the regular army is in danger of being lightly esteemed. Blow the trumpet, and the walls will come down easily enough. Jericho has fallen with shouting and marching, let us gather ourselves together and show that we are a mighty people, who no longer need to go up unanimously and laboriiously in rank and order to the fight, as our fathers did.

Ah, brethren, this evil spirit must be exorcised, for it cometh from the devil. God will not bless us if we tolerate this spirit. Why, some of us are too great altogether for our Lord Jesus to use in his work. Like Saul's armour, we are unfit for our David to put on if Goliath is to be slain. We must be more sensible of weakness, more mindful that the conversion of souls is the work of omnipotence, or we shall see but little done. We must ourselves believe more fully in the need of earnest work for God, and put forth all our strength, and strain every sinew for him, knowing that it is his power that worketh in us mightily when we strive with all our hearts. We must learn that our great Leader means us not only to shout and blow rams' horns, but to employ all the strength of every man in our ranks in his glorious cause. May we be delivered from the presumption which leads to the foolish course which Israel pursued.

Let us not forget that these children of Israel were forgetting their commission and violating the command of God. It is a terrible truth that the tribes had been brought out of Egypt that they might be the executioners of divine vengeance upon races which had committed capital crimes, for which the Lord had condemned them to be rooted out. The reward of the ministers of justice was to be the land which the infamous ones had polluted. They were charged to make no alliances with them, nor to intermarry with them, but to execute them for their crimes; and the commission was not given to some of the

Israelites, but to all of them, for all were to be rewarded by a portion of the land. The charge was not given to Joshua and to the elders only, but to all the tribes. As they all expected to have a dwellingplace in Canaan, so they were all expected to conquer the territory by their own exertions. They were all an enlisted host for God, and he never ordained that a part only should go forth in his great controversy with the condemned Canaanites.

If we ever neglect to render universal service as a church in the cause of Christ we shall depart from our trust and call, for the Lord · has sent all his disciples to testify of him and contend against sin. He has sent us all to make known everywhere, according to our ability, the glad tidings of his salvation; and he has not given this command to this or that man, or to this or that body of men, but to all his chosen. Every member of the body has its own office, and no part of it can be allowed to lie dormant. To none has he said, "Go your way, eat the fat and drink the sweet, and find fault with those who do the work;" but to all his saints our Lord Jesus says-" As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you." Every Christian man is described in Scripture as being a light, a light not to be hidden, but seen of men. Every child of God is described as forming a part of that "city set on a hill which cannot be hid." It is not only the ministers who are the salt of the earth and the light of the world; but “ye are the salt of the earth"; "ye are the light of the world"; all of you without exception. Each one in his own proportion and in his own place must be used as a vessel in the great house of the Lord: and we shall get away from our true position and our high calling if we excuse ourselves or our brethren from personal service, and then go and take part in public meetings and thank God for what other people have done on our behalf.

These Israelites, in the new fashion which they were trying to set up, were departing from their own model. That model was, doubtless, the siege of Jericho. In that siege there was much dependence upon God, but there was no neglect of instrumentality; and, though all they did was to go round the city and shout, yet in so doing they were literally fulfilling orders, and doing all that was commanded. Yes, if this would bring down the walls they did it thoroughly-they marched as bidden and shouted as desired. They all went round Jericho; they did not some of them sit in their tents and look on while the others paraded, but they all filed out in order. It might seem to be a perfectly needless procession, but it was commanded by God, and they all united in it. In martial array they all compassed the city, and all gave the shout, and down came the walls, and there and then every man went up to the prey, leaping over the ruined walls to strike his foe in the name of the Lord! That was their precedent and pattern, and they were departing from it very sadly when they said, "Let not all the people labour thither."

What, then, is our model as a church? Is it not Pentecost? Is it not those earliest days, that dawn of Christianity, that golden era to which we always look back as the heroic age of our holy faith? In that day did they not break bread from house to house, all of them? Did they not sell their lands and lay the price of them at the apostles'

feet? Was there not a burning enthusiasm throughout the entire company of disciples? We know it was so; and if we are to see again the triumphs of those primitive times we must go back to primitive practice, and every man and woman and child in the church must be consecrated to the divine service. "Child," did I say? Yes, verily, for "out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise.' I suppose there is not one person present who heard that famous sermon by Matthew Wilks upon the universal service rendered by idolaters to their false gods, from the text, "The children gathered wood, and the fathers kindled the fire, and the women kneaded their dough to make cakes to the queen of heaven." The preacher's argument on that occasion was that which I would now press upon you, that all should take part in the work of the Lord. Distinct offices but united aims; diverse operations but the same spirit; many and yet one-so let it be. Would to God that the church would recognise this more fully, and so come back to the great precedents of her warfare.

Again, this error which we are carefully to avoid was no doubt the dictate of carnal wisdom. Spies were never of much use to Israel—two only of the first twelve were faithful-what did Israel want with spies ? Better far had it been to walk by faith. To Ai they must need send spies instead of going up at once in the confidence of faith: evil came of it, for these spies counselled that only part of the people need labour up the hill. And, brethren, the best ministers of Christ, worthy of all honour, would be the cause of great mischief if once their carnal wisdom should make them think that they can supersede primitive plans with wiser inventions. I dare say the men-at-arms would have said that Israel's numbers were a hindrance to efficient fighting, and that the common sort were in the way of trained warriors and encumbered the battle. I know that some able brethren are of this mind. Have they not said in acts if not in words, "That young man is preaching-we wish he would be quiet; he makes such blunders in the Queen's English! He has a great deal of zeal, but there is no little danger in it. And those good sisters-we know they do a good deal of work which was never done before, but-": and they shake their heads at them. That is often the main contribution of the more prudent sort to the service of God! They generously lavish upon the younger folks their grave looks and their shakes of the head at innovation and zeal. There is the Sunday-school; well, that is a proper thing, because it is a recognised agency, but if it were started to-day for the first time many would shake their heads at that also. City mission work, again, is a tried and proved mode of operation; but in days gone by there was thought to be peril in lay agency, especially as the men were not college trained. Well, my brethren, there are many more holy agencies yet to be invented, and though they will none of them be perfect, our wet blankets will not improve them. Better far will it be to help the good, and as for the little mischief which may come of imperfect agencies, let the wise men supply the antidote and rectify the blunders. Anything is better than lethargy and death. Thank God that our people have a mind to do good, and if their zeal be inclined to wildfire, let us not quench it, but try to use it for holy purposes; for, after all, fire, wild or otherwise, is what we want. If we have the fire from